1. The Field of the Invention
This invention broadly relates to spinner fishing lures. In one of its more specific aspects, the invention is concerned with a spinner fishing lure of novel construction, design and function which eliminates the conventional wire harness commonly used in the prior art.
2. The Description of the Prior Art
Spinner fishing lures of the wire harness type are widely used at the present time. Examples of prior art lures of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,143,824, 3,253,363, 3,808,726, 4,003,154, 4,011,681, 4,033,065, 4,074,454, 4,158,927, 4,209,932 and 4,571,877.
FIG. 1 of the drawings also illustrates a typical prior art commercially available wire harness spinner lure. Referring now to FIG. 1, the prior art spinner lure generally designated as 20 includes a "safety pin" wire harness 30 which includes an eye 21, a first lengthy divergent arm 22 connected to weighted body 23 and hook 24, and a second lengthy divergent arm 25 connected to swivel 26, which in turn is connected to spinner blade 27. A rubber skirt 28 provided with a plurality of rubber tails 29 is attached to the trailing end of weighted body 23 to hide hook 24, and a fishing line 31 is tied to eye 21 to pull lure 20 in the direction of the extended line 31.
The above-described prior art spinner lures have a number of limitations and disadvantages which are inherent in their design, construction, and materials of manufacture. For example, the "safety pin" wire harness commonly used in lures of this type is especially troublesome and it would be very advantageous to eliminate it. The wire harness is easily bent out of shape on contact with underwater objects such as rocks, logs and stumps, and requires frequent re-tuning in order to retrieve properly. The fisherman is also limited with a given wire harness and weighted body combination in the size of spinner blades that can be used therewith. The shape of the wire harness and the distance to the weighted body, the distance from the arm bend to the spinner blade, and the distance between the hook and the harness wire are all factors that must be contended with in sizing the proper spinner blade to a given lure. Thus, the manufacturer must select the desired type of spinner blade to be used, which is usually a Colorado or round spinner blade, a willow leaf or long spinner blade, or an Indiana or oblong spinner blade, and then select the desired size thereof, which may vary from size 1 to size 8, and thereafter size the wire harness and weighted body to the selected blade. Otherwise, a rolling action takes place upon retrieval that will tangle the fishing line and upset the natural and desired action of the lure. It is not possible to simply change the spinner blade at a cost of a few cents when a different size is desired under given fishing conditions. The fisherman must buy additional complete lures at a cost of several dollars each with the desired blade sizes already assembled thereon. It would be very desirable and cost efficient to be able to replace the spinner blade with any desired blade type or size rather than purchase complete lures.
The prior art spinner lures are very sensitive to the speed and manner of retrieval. They must be retrieved at certain rates for varying spinner blade sizes and shapes in order to obtain suitable lure action. There is also no side-to-side and/or wiggling action to imitate a bait fish as retrieval of the lure is in a straight line from the point of fall to the rod tip. Depth control is not maintained during retrieval and the lure is gradually pulled up toward the point of retrieval from the initial depth at the point of fall. Depth control is especially important to fishermen competing in tournaments as electronic depth finders are commercially available which indicate the presence of fish and their depth. The lure must run at the proper depth for the fish to see the lure and thereby assure a maximum number of strikes.
The wire in the prior art wire harness spinner lures must be stiff and heavy to avoid breakage and/or frequent re-tuning, and it is usually of a diameter of 32/thousandths of an inch or larger. The use of such heavy wire and a lengthy wire harness greatly reduces vibration and/or pulsation in the body and skirt of the lure, and this in turn decreases its attractiveness to fish as vibration created by the rotating flashing blades of a spinner lure is one of its most important features.
In the lure of FIG. 1 described above, the vibration created by spinner blade 27 must travel down the long heavy stiff arm 25 to eye 21, and at that point, a substantial amount of its vibration intensity is lost to line 31 and travels up the lengthy line to the fisherman, and then back to eye 21. The intensity of the vibration by-passing eye 21 and reaching arm 22 is greatly reduced, and it is then further reduced upon traveling down the long heavy stiff arm 22 to body 23 and skirt 28. Heavy wire is much less efficient in transmitting vibration than thin wire, and long lengths of the wire further decrease the efficiency. As a result, the prior art wire harness spinner lures were able to use effectively only a fraction of the vibration created by the spinner blades.
The prior art spinner lures additionally were not completely snagless and weedless, and this reduced their effectiveness when fishing in heavy weeds, reeds and other vegitation, rocks, stumps, overhanging tree limbs, and other difficult fishing conditions. A completely snagless and weedless spinner lure would have many advantages and has been long sought in this art.
The aforementioned and other deficiencies and disadvantages of the prior art spinner lures have been recognized by those skilled in this art. However, an entirely satisfactory alternative thereto was not available prior to the present invention.